1 rescued, 5 dead in Wenzhou homes collapse

A worker carries fireworks to put on display at a temporary sales outlet in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on Monday.[China Daily]

One survivor was rescued and five were found dead after a residential building collapsed in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, local authorities said Thursday night.

Part of a five-storey residential building in Dahui village of Wencheng County collapsed at about 8 a.m. Thursday, burying nine people from two families.

A 63-year-old woman was pulled out from the debris at about 10:40 p.m. and rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

Rescuers located the woman after she made a phone call to her family under the rubble at 7 p.m..

Three were still buried under the rubble but rescuers found no signs of life.

With the help of eight cranes and excavators, more than 400 paramilitary officers, fire fighters, township officials and medical workers were carrying out rescue operation.

“The scene is quite chaotic, as if the place was leveled by an earthquake,” a rescuer told Xinhua by telephone. “We have to work very carefully because the wreckages of the ruined building are joined to homes still standing.”

One of the adjacent homes, he said, was already damaged with a big hole in its outer wall.

A total of 58 people living nearby were evacuated to safe places.

Local authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the building collapse.